US embassy cable - 04QUEBEC128

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 QUEBEC 000128 
 
SIPDIS 
 
WHA/CAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, SCUL, PHUM, ETTC, ECPS, Telecommunication 
SUBJECT: QUEBEC CITY RADIO STATION CLOSURE SPARKS POLITICAL AND 
CULTURAL DEBATE 
 
1.  Summary:   A local radio station ordered to close by the 
Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission 
(CRTC) as stirred up an expected storm of controversy in the 
Quebec capital, and has also captured extensive national and 
international press attention since the decision was first 
announced July 13.  This is reportedly the first time the CRTC 
has moved to close a station solely on the basis of (offensive 
and abusive) verbal content on the air.  Since 1996, the 
programming of CHOI-FM has been the subject of numerous 
complaints with respect to the conduct of its announcers and the 
spoken word content that is aired, including offensive comments, 
personal attacks and harassment.  The station, however, has 
portrayed the decision as a blow to freedom of expression, as 
has "Reporters Without Borders."  50,000 supporters took to the 
streets in Quebec City on July 22, and another 5,000 bussed to 
Ottawa on August 10, to press the federal government to reverse 
the decision.  Some Quebec politicians are joining the call for 
a review by the courts before the August 31 closure, and several 
are looking for a new deal with Ottawa that will give the 
province greater control over broadcasting in Quebec.  End 
Summary. 
 
2.  The CRTC is an independent agency responsible for regulating 
Canada's broadcasting and telecommunications systems.  The 
Commission ultimately reports to Parliament through the Minister 
of Canadian Heritage.  Its nine panel members are appointed by 
the federal government and individuals are usually selected with 
an eye to insuring that all regions are represented.  In its 
decision issued July 13, the CRTC found that on numerous 
occasions, CHOI had failed to comply with the 1986 Radio 
Regulations as well as the station's own Code of Ethics, as 
required by its license.  It ordered that station closed by 
August 31.  At the same time, the CRTC announced a call for 
applications for broadcasting licenses to operate a new 
French-language station in Quebec City. 
 
3.  On July 22, Quebec City witnessed its largest public 
demonstration since the 2001 Summit of the Americas when an 
estimated 50,000 people swelled the 8 kilometer march from 
suburban Ste-Foy to the Old Port, as CHOI broadcast an amplified 
heartbeat.  CHOI's main personality, talk-show host Jeff 
(Jean-Francois) Fillion was greeted with rock-star adulation 
when he took to the podium at the march's terminus.  Unlike most 
local demonstrations, the CHOI march did not have the Quebec 
unions at its core, but was promoted on the airwaves by the 
radio station itself, which apparently expected a maximum of 
5,000 protesters.   For the August 10 rally in Ottawa, the 
station rented 50 buses and launched an appeal to fans. 
According to press reports, the tickets sold rapidly at the 
symbolic price of $9.81 (CHOI broadcasts at 98.1 MHz).  5,000 
Quebec fans and local supporters staged an emotional, but 
peaceful, rally at the federal capital.  Fillion broadcast live 
from Parliament Hill and admitted on the air that the station 
had "made some mistakes."  Heritage Minister Liza Frulla (a 
Quebec Minister of Cultural Affairs in the 1990s) reaffirmed the 
federal government position that the CRTC decision was 
"irreversible."  She said the decision was reached by an 
independent agency and could not be reversed by the government. 
Station owner Demers requested a meeting with PM Paul Martin and 
was turned down.  The station has now hired the prominent and 
flamboyant Quebec City lawyer Guy Bertrand, and appealed the 
decision before a federal court judge, supported by a 
10,000-page petition. 
 
4.  CHOI-FM is the principal asset of Genex Communications Inc, 
which was formed in 1996 by Patrice Demers, a then-executive 
with Telemedia, which was forced to give up its recently 
acquired CHOI license on competition grounds.  The French 
pronunciation of its call letters, CHOI, is a synonym for 
"choice," and the name of its corporate parent proclaims its 
target audience: the post-baby-boom generation X'ers.  CHOI 
currently attracts half the listeners in its market, which has a 
population of one million.  CHOI initially programmed 
exclusively contemporary (largely American) rock music, and 
quickly ran afoul of the CRTC for not airing a sufficient 
proportion of Canadian and French-language music. The station 
introduced talk-radio about three years ago, with Jeff Fillion 
holding forth on a three-hour morning show, and 25-year veteran 
Andre Arthur airing for two hours during the evening commute. 
Over the years, hosts Fillion and Arthur, who emulate Howard 
Stern in the U.S., have been repeatedly sued by both private 
citizens and public figures on a variety of grounds, including 
defamation.  (Arthur was pulled from the airwaves in 2001 when 
he worked for neighboring station CJFM.) 
 
5.  The CRTC put CHOI on two years' probation in 2002 for 
failure to comply with regulations regarding, among other 
things, abusive comment, the submission of logger tapes, 
insufficient French-language vocal music, and sex-role 
portrayal.  The Commission also considered that the station's 
hosts were "relentless" in their misuse of the public airwaves 
despite unequivocal reprimands and warnings by the CRTC.  In 
February 2004 the Commission called Genex to a public hearing in 
Quebec City to deliberate the possible suspension or non-renewal 
of CHOI-FMs license.  Genex failed to convince the panel, 
reportedly denying a problem existed, and continued to broadcast 
the same subject matter.  In the current debate, CHOI has never 
publicly entertained the notion of firing Fillon, suggesting 
merely that he be fined.  Indeed, for CHOI to abandon its 
talk-radio style would likely destroy its prominent place in the 
local radio market. 
 
6.  Quebec politicians have joined in the debate, focusing both 
on the freedom of expression dimension and on questions of 
regulatory authority.  Telecoms is a federal jurisdiction, but 
culture falls under provincial authority and has high visibility 
in Quebec.  Quebec Premier Jean Charest publicly expressed his 
disagreement with the ruling and called for better 
representation of Quebec interests on the CTRC.  He also called 
for an administrative agreement with Ottawa to give the province 
greater powers over radio and telecommunications.  Action 
Democratique du Quebec leader Mario Dumont also demanded that 
the province be given control over its broadcast policy (albeit 
via (illegal) provincial legislation).  Provincial Opposition 
leader, Bernard Landry of the Parti Quebecois, said that the 
case should be settled by the courts, and expressed sympathy for 
the fifty CHOI employees who would lose their jobs.  The Bloc 
Quebecois, however, issued a statement reiterating the 
independence of action of the CRTC and its unwillingness to 
interfere.  Conservative Stephen Harper's Quebec lieutenant 
Josee Verner said the "CRTC decision was of unprecedented 
severity," and harshly criticized the government for its 
inaction.  The recent incidents drew international attention 
among the journalistic community, with "Reporters Without 
Borders" declaring the case to be an unprecedented "case of 
curbing freedom of expression and censorship." 
 
7.  The CHOI decision and the significance of the unanticipated 
public outcry has stirred up and dominated discussion among 
local citizens and the media to an extent not seen since the run 
up to the Iraq War.  One very vocal group adopts the ground 
staked out by Demers and defends the station under the banner of 
free speech and information, often pointing out the role of the 
station in calling politicians to account and uncovering 
scandals.  Others, however, question how far freedom of 
expression should be allowed to go, see CHOI as part of the 
"hate radio" phenomena, its "investigations" as irresponsible 
calumny, and who think that the station had been given its 
chance to clean itself up.  Others have seen in the CHOI 
phenomenon evidence of hidden trends.  In a guest piece in Le 
Soleil August 8, Laval University sociologist Simon Langlois 
suggested that the volume of CHOI's support did not reflect blue 
collar/white collar differences, but rather the "angry young 
white men" hypothesis.  Langlois noted that half the radio 
listeners aged 18-34 in the Quebec area listen to CHOI, along 
with a quarter of the listeners in the 34-44 cohort.   He said 
that many of these young men are junior college and university 
educated.  Langlois also said that a third of student listeners 
and a third of unemployed listeners tuned to CHOI.  The 
station's attraction, he contended, rested with its alternative 
music and its non-politically correct discourse. 
 
8.  Comment.  The CHOI affair could become an unexpected 
political test for Liberal leaders Jean Charest and Paul Martin. 
 An administrative deal between Quebec and Ottawa on 
telecommunications, an exclusive federal competency, would rule 
out the need for constitutional amendments, but discussions 
would test the new federal-provincial relationship under 
Martin's minority government leadership.  The extent of 
attention the CHOI case has struck among the political class has 
some commentators cynically pointing out the link between this 
political "crusade" and the provincial by-elections scheduled 
September 20, the first since the provincial Liberals came to 
power in the elections of May 2003.  End Comment. 
 
 
STRUDWICK